Obsidian's Chris Avellone indicated that Obsidian just missed a bonus for Fallout: New Vegas, reports Joystiq, saying this came in a tweet from a no longer existent account, allegedly saying: "[Fallout: New Vegas] was a straight payment, no royalties, only a bonus if we got an 85+ on Metacritic, which we didn't." Sure enough, the game currently sits at 84 on Metacritic. They also note their report of layoffs at Obsidian, though these are still unconfirmed. Thanks nin.

I loved Fallout New Vegas and while layoffs are unfortunate, Obsidian doesn't have anyone to blame but themselves for the Metacritic rating. Most of the criticism was focused on the instability of the game, which should have probably been fixed during QA.